Normally I would be making the trip to AZ as it's our annual travel game, but not this year. Maybe that's a good thing as this weekend's matchup doesn't exactly favor our beloved Boys in Purple.

Marques Tuiososopo is listed as "questionable" with a badly bruised bottom. The rest of the team's capable of moving the ball, but anybody who's watched a single Husky game knows it all hinges on the play of our QB.

Statistically Arizona is the better team. They rank in the top-10 nationally in offensive output. Looking at their recent schedule, they scored a ton of points against UCLA, Oregon, UTEP and USC. Those schools are not exactly defensive powerhouses, but the Wildcats have scored in the 30's in every game except two, and scored 41 in a losing effort against Oregon.

That being said, any time you can score 41 points and still lose says something about the Arizona defense. They held UCLA to only 7, but so has everybody else. Most opponents average in the 20's. AZ gives up 138 ypg rushing, and has a really mediocre pass defense.

Arizona's strength on offense comes from rushing, ranking 14th in the nation. Truing is a real-deal runner. Northcutt is one of the best receivers in the league outside of Peter Warrick. The Huskies have nobody to cover him one-on-one.

As per usual, look for the Husky defense to work on stopping the run and pressuring the QB. It worked against Todd Husak, who frequently had to throw the ball away in the second half. Although they have stepped up on occasion the Husky defense is pretty poor overall. Anthony Vontoure will no doubt be covering Northcutt, who he'll get help from is the big question. Hakim Akbar will probably be getting a lot of tackles. Unfortunately most of them will be somewhere downfield.

The last two games I predicted the Huskies losers, and they ended up winning tough battles. Statistically this Husky team should not be winning so many games. If I had to point at the reason they win the close ones, it's Marques Tuiososopo. He is a fearless competitor, and his attitude is infectious. If he doesn't play on Saturday then I think the Huskies have only a longshot at winning the game. By being able to play the option as well as a good short passing game, defenses are often confused and pay dearly for mistakes. Without Marques being able to scamper for 14 yarders on broken plays the Huskies will be in serious trouble. Our main running threat, Mo Shaw, is not a breakaway player like Truing Canidate. If Willie Hurst comes back at 100% and a renewed sense of vigor then he's definitely our guy.

Some quick odds n' ends. Arizona sacked UCLA 9 times, USC 7. AZ had 110 yards in penalties against UCLA, 85 against Oregon. That's pretty high. They gave up 4 sacks to Oregon. Oregon had a 10 minute time of possession advantage. They could not stop the Oregon run or passing game. Our kicker kicks ass. Who will return our kickoffs? God help us if it's number 10 again.

The big question is, will Marques play? If so, how effective will he be? Look for UW to use all their options - running, TE's (once again we are Tight-End U.), our receivers had excellent games - guess Stanford made us look good.

My guess is it'll be a high scoring game. If Marques doesn't play, it'll only be high-scoring on one side. With him: AZ wins by homefield advantage, 38-34. Without him I don't see the Dawgs scoring more than 27. Ouch. Let's hope I'm wrong again.